


Pancake

by BarettaVendetta



Series: Tales from the Konoha Library [16]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 06:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2571800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarettaVendetta/pseuds/BarettaVendetta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An internal monologue from the point of view of the misunderstood Hyuuga patriarch, as he plays a game of shogi with Shikaku Nara.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pancake

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in the same universe as 'Taming The Wolf'.

_I believe in defending what we once stood for…_

Shikaku Nara and Hiashi Hyuuga are playing shougi. Shikaku is one of the few clan heads Hiashi gets on with, along with Shibi Aburame. The other three – Chouza, Tsume and Inoichi – are, respectively, too emotional, too brash, and too lost in a world of his own. Shikaku is a good-natured, hard-working man who takes his job as Jounin Commander seriously and always tries to do the right thing. He is liberal to Hiashi’s conservative – Hiashi would never have allowed either of his daughters to be as lazy as Shikamaru was, and Shikaku thinks Hiashi is too strict, and therein lies the problem.

_Bloodlines. That is the difference between you and I. Your clan techniques are taught and learned, passed down from generation to generation, while ours are inherited. The Byakugan’s sanctity must be preserved at all costs. We do not want it getting into enemy hands. You would not want enemies learning your shadow manipulation jutsu, would you? You may think our curse seal is barbaric, but it is a necessary evil. Do you think I was happy that day when I activated Hizashi’s curse seal when I saw him giving Hinata the evil eye? I did not wish to do it. But that is the way of our clan, and it always has been, and I was trying to protect my daughter. I know there are people in the Branch who resent her. Neji may have put his demons to rest, but others have not, not when so many of them died._

Hiashi looks at the scarred and bearded face across the board from him, as Shikaku places a finger on his knight and his forehead creases in concentration. He is still smouldering with anger over a comment Shikaku made earlier about Hinata, and how he should have been less harsh on her over her decision to quit being a shinobi. Hinata’s gangrape at the hands of a group of Amegakure shinobi has reached Shikaku, and he can understand why she no longer wants to be a shinobi. She isn’t the first to have given up. Who knows, she might even go back to it one day – after all, didn’t she adopt Naruto’s ninja creed about not giving up? “You’ve got to give her a chance, Hiashi,” he’d said after a village meeting. “The shinobi world breaks people.”

The shinobi world breaks people? Hiashi knows this. Oh, Hiashi knows this all right. Shikaku still has two sisters and a wife. Hiashi’s wife and brother are dead.

_I suppose you think I’m fooling myself if I think she’s the one in the wrong. Well, I’m not sure who’s fooling who here. What do you know of the Hyuuga? Do you realise what Hinata’s decision means to me? She was making so much progress. I thought that she was no longer the weak girl she used to be, that she was developing into a worthy heir for the clan and might even be my heir, as opposed to Hanabi…and then she does this. Did you not call Shikamaru a coward when he said he was giving up?_

Every year, on the anniversary of Hizashi’s death, Hiashi visits his brother’s grave. He goes alone. He suspects that Neji visits it too, but does not ask. Hiashi is a private man, and so is Neji. Neither of them are given to public displays of emotion. The two are able to read each other with just a glance, though there are moments when Hiashi sees Hizashi in Neji’s face, and looks away.

 _You and I are the figureheads of our clans. Clan heads are not just decoration; we are the pillars of our clans, the ones with responsibility for clan members’ welfare, their voices on the village council, the ones who have to do penance when a clan member commits suicide or visit a dead clan member’s wife and children. But who visits the clan head when_ his _wife is dead? How can I even explain to you how I felt when I saw Himeko lying in her own blood? All I could do was stand there dumbstruck, with Hanabi in my arms and Hinata clinging to my leg and asking what was wrong with Mummy. Her eyes were wide open when she died. As for Hizashi…if Tomoko or Motoko were to walk out on you, despite your protestations, and the next you saw of them, they were nothing but ashes in a box, you wold have nightmares too. I never talk about the nightmares. I cannot. I cannot even cry._

The two men silently move pieces around the board and drink tea. Shikaku winces at a twinge in his leg. He was injured in the war during a fight with one of the Pein bodies. Inoichi is the only member of the Ino-Shika-Chou trio who emerged from the war unscathed; Shikaku suffered injuries to his body, and Chouza suffered injuries to his sanity.

_I was embarrassed for Chouza when we were leading the funeral procession and he wept into his hands. I would not dream of doing such a thing. A clan head should not cry so openly in public, not when so many members of his clan are looking to him for guidance. Yet I envy him, as loath as I am to say it. I cannot remember the last time I cried. I could not cry for Hizashi or Himeko, even though I wanted to. All I felt was emptiness. I had two little girls and a nephew who hated me._

The Akimichi and Branch Hyuuga, the clans who served as the first line of attack – the ‘meat shields’, as some shinobi crudely called them - were the hardest hit.

_I had to keep calm and dignified in the face of death. Even as Chouza and I were putting our differences aside to work together, as we dug through the remnants of a destroyed house to try and save the mother and child I had seen with my Byakugan, and moments after Chouza’s group had forged a path through the fragments of brick and glass and wood, only to find that it was too late. Even then, I kept my dignity, kept my Byakugan active and continued to search for survivors. One must not break down in such a situation, as I am sure you appreciate._

Shikamaru is down at the Academy, teaching. Hinata is somewhere with Kiba, her team mate, who has recently come out as gay. The two of them have been spending a lot of time together recently.

_I would not be surprised if you and your team mates speculated together over whether that fucking Hyuuga’, as Chouza so kindly called me, really loves his daughters. How ridiculous. My daughters are all I have, along with Neji. Is it my fault that I did not know how to be a mother, how to talk to them about womanhood? I find it awkward to talk about such things. I am conservative, yes. But someone has to be. Someone has to keep the standards. Now that the Uchiha are gone, we are the strongest clan in Konoha, and we must lead by example. We cannot fall into decadence and complacency. We have seen what madmen such as Orochimaru and Nagato and the masked man are capable of doing. Even if the Sixth is powerful, and one of the only living Jinchuriki, who’s to say that there will not be another invasion? That Sunagakure might not turn on us? I know you believe that we are safe and that your son’s relationship with the Kazekage’s sister is helping to keep the peace, but the Kazekage will not be in charge forever._

Hiashi deliberates, and then moves his lance, and looks Shikaku right in the eye.

_Your move, Shikaku._

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of Hinata fans hate Hiashi. OK, he's not parent of the year, but I always saw him as quite a sympathetic character and wanted to try and see things from his point of view. He does love his daughters, but is very bad at showing it, and isn't evil, just very, very sad. I chose 'Pancake' because the lyrics make it sound like it's addressed at an establishment figure, and Hiashi - particularly in my 'verse - represents the Konoha establishment, as head of a noble clan with a powerful bloodline.


End file.
